[D8 LE Yasu's Room] Soft Rain, Soft Words

[Susaki Tanabe]

Tanabe thinks for a moment his mouth setting into a grim line, his breathing decidedly even he looked to a point in the room seemingly much further away than the wall in front on him. He took a long moment like this hand held in hers arm around her side.

After that long moment that hung in crystalline stillness, a stillness that felt almost fragile "I do not like to think about it." he started gently shattering the silence with a soft voice, soft but determined "But if you became lost, if you were no longer you. I would do what needed to be done." he said with a serious tone.

He looked down to her and the severity softened, warmth suffused his eyes his hand on her side came to her hair brushing it back thick fingers gliding through the long strands "You would not want to live like that. It would break my heart, shatter my soul, but my love for you would not let leave you Lost. My love for you does not make me weak but it makes me strong and it would give me the strength to do it."

he took a breath a somewhat shaky smile "but Kami it does not make it easier to imagine." he said with a slight shake of the head. "Yasu I imagine being with you, with the Crab there are a lot of things that will be new to me. That will be strange and frightening, both monsters and spirits." his hand stroked her head gently once more the shakiness bleeding out of his smile for a more firm, resolute warmth "But I think no matter what nightmare I face, what new terror I encounter I could face it all with you by my side."

[Kuni Yasu]

She's quiet, patiently leaving room for him to process, thumb gently moving against the side of his hand. Her breathing is regular throughout, though some tension in her relaxes as he speaks--all easily felt through his arm wrapped around her. "Thank you for looking straight at it, beloved," Releasing his hand, she rolls to look up at him, hair spilling across his lap. 'Nothing makes it easier to imagine, but with what there is to learn, you'll get some practice thinking about it, at least. This isn't a 20 goblin winter where you'd just be tossed into it with a few reminders and a finger of jade."

For a long moment, she just absorbs the warmth of his smile, letting it light her own, easing the soft sympathy from her eyes. Her near arm comes up across his back, shoulder slotted along the fold of his waist, strong fingers pressing into a one-armed hug that ought to be awkward, but just seems right. "There's signs to look for. Trust that...if you don't see those and I ask you do to something that seems terrible...it's necessary. I love you too much to push you needlessly. But there'd be a comfort...and a fear...having you beside me. If that's what you want to do, I don't think that would be a dfficult thing to arrange."

[Susaki Tanabe]

He smiles down at her enjoying the embrace and returning it as best he can in the position but there is no awkwardness in the gesture just solidarity and caring. "It is what I prefer, but I will not make demands of your Clan. If they ask I will make it known how I wish to serve but I will have to trust my new lord to place me where they think I will best serve. The Crab do not have an easy duty. Likely little room for personal preference. If they need my body for the Wall that is where I will go, if they think I will be a good Guardian for you then I will be overjoyed." He said with a happy smile just content thinking of a future where they are together.

He stroked her face gently, her pale features framed by a dark nimbus of sprawling hair that covered his lap. It was an almost hauntingly beautiful contrast. No matter how much she insisted she was no great beauty Tanabe could see nothing else "Whatever duty i am given, I serve happily so long as you are in my life." He said with a certainty.

[Kuni Yasu]

"You would see the Wall as my yojimbo, and the lands beyond it. We travel them all at one time or another." She smiles, despite the topic, turning her head a bit to press against his fingers. "The Wall might be the first place you'd feel small. I feel like a child running along the top of it, and standing below...you can't imagine how anything could get past it." And then you really feel afraid, because things have gotten past it, more than once. But she doesn't say that aloud.

There's a wistful worry to her expression, "how do I deserve you?" That cheer of his that never stayed hidden for long, the devotion in his words and eyes. "I can't match what you bring to me...I feel like I can't, ever quite set my duty aside, even with you, but you've somehow made me your duty. I'm not sure what to do with that, Tanabe." Whatever worry is there, it's soft. Like gently poking a bruise and seeing what shape it's in. "Besides love you with my whole heart, even when duty makes no room for love or hearts." Her smile shows more confusion than concern, as she feels her way through the questions.

[Susaki Tanabe]

he brings one large hand up to cup the far side of her face his thumb running along her cheekbone softly as he did "Oh my sweet one. It is not on you to match what I bring. I bring my heart to you, I would not expect you to push aside your duty to me, your duty is so important to you. Your conviction and dedication, they are some of the things that drew me to you." his hand travelled down her thinly clothed form deliberately hitting certain points of interest along the way "It was in fact more than this amazing body that called me to you Yasu." he said with an amused chuckle as he made a return journey across her curves to hold her face again.

His eyes wandered a bit around the room as he spoke "You have to understand, my duty growing up was a small one, to protect a single boat, then to compete in a sport. Do not mistake me that it is unimportant or anything but small in the grand scheme of things." he then looked down to her hints of admiration in his gaze "but then you come and talk of your duty, talk of how you and your clan work to protect not just yourselves but the entire Empire. You hold back the darkness, you risk your bodies and your souls so that others do not have to." he closed his eyes and gently shook his head before reopening them "That really means something." he said simply but significantly.

"I could never try to push aside such a large duty in your heart, I am just incredibly grateful that you have found a way to carve some space out for me with everything big and heavy that must weigh on your heart." he said with warmth joining the admiration "It is my hope that with our lives together I can take some of that big, heavy burden upon myself. That we can share this important job. I don't want to replace anything. I want to become a part of something bigger than me."

[Kuni Yasu]

"But that...becoming part of something larger than yourself," shifting around on her knees to face him, she takes his hands in hers, "that's what keeps the burden from becoming too heavy. We all are so small, holding up a tiny bit of it, like ants forming up to haul away things much larger than they are." There's a soft tug as she pulls herself in to kiss him, slow and fierce. "With you beside me, I feel a little larger, able to hold a little more of that duty up."

Her smile shifts toward wry, with a lopsided lift to it. "Secretly? I'm sort of sorry for the warriors of most clans. Maybe they get to handle bandits, or Yobanjin to the north, but most of them are training to fight one another. The Lion are so diligent and practiced...mostly to war with the Crane." She shakes her her head in frustration. "Better to use that space we make for them creating art, building temples."

[Susaki Tanabe]

His hands come to the generous curve of her waist and pull her into him as he returns the kiss with no less energy and passion hands roaming only slightly during the embrace.

He smiles in return to her as they separate "Hai, that sense of belonging and community. Shared purpose. It seems like it would form bonds similar to a family on the River. Different surely, much higher stakes but the same way you rely on each other, value each other. Help carry each other. This is something I want to be a part of. To help, to make a difference, to be part of your life. With you O feel I can do anything." He brought her in and embraced her large arms wrapping around her and squeezing gently but firmly.

Pulling back a little he nods "I can understand what you mean. The issues of other clans must seem so....unimportant when you compare it to your duty. The constant fighting for power and influence probably seems pointless in light of the things you deal with. It'd be better if we could all come together more, if other clans could help take the burden off."

[Kuni Yasu]

She surrenders easily to that embrace, wrapping strong arms tightly around her love as she finds a way into his lap. "It's not that they're all unimportant...just that it seems like many of the reasons to fight one another over are. Dying over an insult is just foolish." She rests her forehead against his. "I think your clan has a better idea...just float away from the foolishness and politics."

[Susaki Tanabe]

His thick arms come around her, one behind, one in front as he embraces the Crab in his lap a slight rumbling chuckle Yasu would likely feel as much as hear "I don't know about all that Su-chan." He said burying his face in her hair a little, enjoying the smell of her.

"We are an unusual clan to say the least." His words were slightly muffled but with their closeness it wouldn't be hard for her to understand. He turned his head to just gently rest on hers "little would get done, like it or not most clans fight because they think they know what's best for the Empire I think. They have a vision for how it should be, its not greed its a kind of caring. They just lose sight of things sometimes." He said his voice soft

"US Otter just don't concern ourselves with it. Not that we have much choice, we can't really make an impact if we wanted to. Not yet anyway, maybe one day but for now we stick to what we know and stay out of the way."

[Kuni Yasu]

There's a small contented sort of hmmm, as she settles into his arms, wrapping hers around his chest and feeling the ever more familiar brush of his curls against her cheek. She can't remember when she last felt this kind of comfort...childhood? Being comfortable and safe, curled up with someone and knowing she's loved.

"Not sure the endless conflict between Lion and Crane is caring. Maybe in some spots, but there's a lot of old grudges." She nuzzles happily against him, breath against his ear. "And the Otter have their own duty. None of the Minor clans can afford getting into fights like that. I'm thankful that you're willing to join the Crab's."